The problem with the carbon tax

By Philip CrossMar. 11, 2019

The result is a hodgepodge of carbon taxes, extensive regulations, and subsidies, and high levels of income tax which have not lowered carbon emissions or improved tax efficiency even as they hampered the competitiveness of Canadian industry against U.S. firms.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured in Ottawa. The proposition that a carbon tax is more efficient itself is highly dubious in practice, argues Philip Cross. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opposition to a carbon tax has mushroomed in a short period of time, suggesting it needed little water to sprout and grow. This would not be surprising to carbon tax advocates if they had been more rooted in the importance of local circumstances in gaining public acceptance of new policy regimes. North America has always been difficult terrain to cultivate support for consumption taxes, of which the carbon tax is the latest variant, while it has long been fertile ground for their opponents.

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